Marine families get cybersupport for loved ones in war zones

Web site connects Marine familiesParents get cybersupport for loved ones in war zones

Published 5:30 am, Monday, April 24, 2006

Steve Schulz knew where to find emotional support when he learned that a roadside bomb had driven shrapnel into his son's brain while on patrol with his Marine unit in Iraq.

Schulz, 52, a sales manager from Friendswood, went to MarineParents.com, a Web site created by a parent of another Marine whose son had gone to Iraq. On the message board, he sought prayers for Cpl. Steven K. Schulz, 21. And the responses flooded in.

His son has undergone 14 brain surgeries, but has survived.

Schulz was among nearly 200 parents of Marines who gathered this weekend at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Houston for the MarineParents.com annual conference to offer the support that only military families can give each other.

When his son asked him to send him a scope for his M-4 carbine, Schulz scraped together enough to buy seven scopes at $800 apiece and shipped them to Iraq.

The Web site sent $100,000 in equipment to Marines in Iraq last year, he said.

Schulz said he is trying to raise $40,000 to equip three companies, each with about 300 Marines, that getting ready to head to Iraq.

Col. Bryan McCoy, who commanded the 3rd battalion, 4th Marines while Della Vecchia's son was in the unit, said he went to MarineParents.com to post open letters to parents and "saw a true benefit to parents and that it filled a need that needed to be filled."

McCoy said families with sons and daughters in the service often live in communities that experience the conflict as a distant, abstract event.

"They can't walk out the door and see that they are in a nation at war," he said.